Helsinki, 21-22 August: Suomenlinna, harbour and overnight to Stockholm.

In keeping with the odd history of Finland, and indeed much of Scandinavia, the fortress island that guards the entrance of the harbour and really controls much of the deep water channels along the coast has been controlled by three nations over the past 250 years. I really do need to listen to The Rest is History podcast on the Great Northern War, because that’s a central part of the story, but when one considers that Finland was Swedish, then Russian, then a Nazi ally, and now is part of NATO and the EU, things are pretty fluid in these northern latitudes! Lets not talk about Norway being Swedish, then Danish, then Swedish, before finally becoming an independent nation in 1905!

What is surprising is that so much political action happened in a geographically vast area, with much of the northern regions remote and inaccessible for much of the year, with poor soil and small populations. No wonder they went a-viking, both east and west. The wealth of all three nordic nations wasn’t unleashed until the mid-19th Century, and they were all pretty poor backwaters until then middle of last century; so their current status as economic, political and social successes is even more surprising. Finland is a massive ship-builder, evidenced by the fact that most of the ships in the harbour, and the ferry we are on at the moment, are constructed in Turcu.

Suomennlina is a fortress spread over eight islands, costructed by the Swedish Navy to defend Helsinki against the Russian Empire. It might have been modelled on Vauban’s designs, but fortresses need food and the Swede’s were forced to surrender it during the Finnish War in 1908 after a siege. It then stayed Russian until 1917, although it was attacked by the Royal Navy during the Crimean War. It is a fantastic collection of ruins, relics and redoubts (see what I did there), and the weather was perfect for walking around and enjoying the sea and the sunshine.

We did some shopping on our return. Dinner was in a local Vietnamese cafe and we both slept well as the walls of our room are about a metre thick (and we were in the old admin building). We had most of Friday to enjoy Helsinki as the ferry to Stockholm didn’t leave until five, so we did a ten kilometre walk around the east harbour and then on into town. It was a fantastic walk beside the water, although it felt odd because the Gulf of Finland is so calm (at the moment!), so there was none of the steady swell that is so much part of Port Jackson. We had the chance to explore the Moomins, a topic which requires more research and possibly a whole blog post, but Lumi will be the beneficiary of our encounter with these little trolls. We also visited the Rissian Orthodox cathedral—not the most popular religious address in this town.

The ferry is amazing as it is essentially two blocks of flats with a food court between them, sitting on top of a double decker garage bolted to a barge. But the rooms are comfortable, the food is good (but expensive) and we have a window to watch the archipelago and coast slip by.